If The Shoe Fits
by Smapdi
Summary: Mindy has a recurring dream that's driving her a little bit insane.


**One shot, fluffy and silly. I can't stop writing these two! They are just too much fun. **

Every night, for weeks, I've had the dream. It varies in scope and depth - but there's one central, unvarying theme, and it has slowly been making me lose my mind.

I'm with this faceless dream man - classic dream cliche, you know? I can be at home, the office, the hospital, even random indescribable locations, and he is always there and we are going at it. Big time. It's as realistic a dream as I have ever had - every touch, smell, and taste is vivid and exciting. Sometimes all we do is kiss, endless kissing, like a couple of high school kids, and sometimes it goes further, but never, as the high schoolers would put it, all the way. Do high schoolers put it that way anymore? Or is there a new term... Anyway, I digress.

It always ends the same. The faceless man is silent the entire encounter, until he murmurs my name into my ear. "Mindy..."

And I recognize the voice, and pull back to see the mystery man isn't a mystery anymore.

It's Danny.

Then I wake up screaming. Ok, I'm not really screaming, but hyperventilating, drenched in sweat, with my heart pounding so hard I can hear it. There are other physical reactions too... ones that aren't entirely unpleasant. But still!

The first time it happened I thought it was kind of funny. The whole idea of making out with Danny is so wildly inappropriate that it has some appeal just on that basis alone. I have, once or twice, thought that Danny was on the verge of making a move, but I'm not wholly convinced that I didn't just invent the whole thing in my rom-com addled brain. He can be so hard to read, and frankly, the idea that he would have any interest in me is difficult to accept, even though the look in his eyes sometimes gives me pause.

After about a week of this dream, night after night, I was not laughing anymore. I was starting to freak out a little. The worst part was how it was bleeding into my real life. I broke it off with Cliff after our third date. When he kissed me, I wasn't kissing him back. I was kissing Danny. Of course, Cliff had no idea, but he sensed something was wrong. Especially when I pushed him away and ran into the bathroom. I don't think that was how he anticipated the night ending.

But it didn't go away. It started happening even when I took a nap. Can you imagine the horror of taking a snooze on the lounge couch and waking up to find the real Danny staring at you bemusedly? I don't have to imagine because it happened just the other day. It was a GOOD one, too. I was probably moaning in my sleep.

"Hey, sleepyhead." Danny had that damned crooked smile, just like in the dream.

"Uh, hey, D..Danny." I was having trouble forming words and when I sat up, my head was spinning.

"Geez, are you ok?" He came over and sat next to me, way too close, putting the back of his hand on my forehead. "What were you dreaming about? Your heart is racing."

I stammered quickly that it was a nightmare, just a nightmare.

"Musta been a bad one. Were you being chased by some ravenous beast?"

Goddamn it Danny, stop looking at me like that. His eyes were twinkling and he just couldn't stop grinning. Was he a freaking mind reader?

"Yeah, that's what happened, Danny. But I'm fine now, thanks." I fumbled for the remote under my ass and flipped channels.

"Ok, good..." He got up and headed to the door, but he paused in the doorway and turned back. "Hey Min."

I looked up at him and a grin crept across his face again. He seemed to smile a lot more lately, and I liked it.

"Be careful. That beast might catch you one of these days." And then he winked. He. Goddamned. Winked.

Danny Castellano does not WINK. Who was this man? I couldn't ask, because he was gone.

So besides the romantic disasters and humiliations I have suffered the past few weeks, I am also kind of a wreck from lack of sleep. It's not that I don't want to - I just seem to have trouble getting to sleep and once I have the dream, I have trouble getting back to sleep. I tried aromatherapy and various teas and potions, to no avail. Wine therapy did not do the trick either. I am reluctant to used prescription medicines for this type of thing, but I was seriously giving it some thought.

Fortunately, work was slow and there were no babies on the horizon, and just standard check-ups and exams filled my days. Still, I was zoning out just doing paperwork, so simple things tended to take forever. That was why I was still at my desk after office hours had ended, reading the same sentences over and over, when Danny stopped in my doorway.

"Mindy."

My heart raced, because I heard that voice every night in my dreams, the low, almost sensual way he growled my name. I looked up over my glasses to see him standing there, leaning against the doorframe. He looked relaxed and casual, sleeves rolled up and buttons undone. Fuckable.

God, where did that come from?

I swallowed hard and glanced around for my water bottle, either to wet my now dry throat, or just pour over my head, I wasn't sure which.

"You doing OK? You seem a little off lately."

I steeled myself against the tone of concern in his voice. "I'm fine, Danny. I'm just busy... Gotta finish this write up while things are fresh in my ind."

"Your last patient was like three hours ago."

Nails scraping on a chalkboard were easier to listen to than Danny's voice. "Thanks for your concern but have a excellent memory." I huffed back at him.

He just kept standing there, hands in pockets. "Did you need something?" I asked him, maybe a little rudely, and there was just this imperceptible change in his expression. Man of mystery indeed.

"No, I... just making sure you were OK." Hurt? Defeat? I heard something that made me feel bad in his tone. He started to move away and I suddenly wanted him to stay.

"Hey, Danny, can I ask you something?"

He turned back and came into the office, sitting in the consultation chair and stretching his legs out in front of him. His movements were so fluid, it was like watching ballet. I guess he expected me to actually ask the question, so after a minute or so of staring dumbly at him, he spoke up.

"What's up, Min?" Gah... It did something to me when he called me that. Something fluttery and uncomfortable. He followed that by leaning forward, hands clasped on the desk, and gazing at me from under those ridiculously lush lashes.

Snap out of it, Lahiri.

"Danny, have you ever had a recurring dream? Like, not the same exactly, but sorta, and it keeps happening?"

"Nope." Was his helpful reply.

I closed up my file and clicked out of my spreadsheet, shutting down the machine. I couldn't work in this state anyway.

"Was that it?" He asked, making moves to get up.

"Yeah, I just wondered... I've been having this same dream, night after night, and it's getting a little unnerving."

This must have piqued his interests, because he settled back down and crossed his arms. "I've never really had very memorable dreams, so I don't know for sure, but that sounds a little strange. What are you dreaming about?"

Of course he would ask me that. I hadn't thought this through at all.

"Oh, nothing..." Think fast, Mindy. "I'm just, uh, buying shoes."

Danny snorted. "That's not a dream, Mindy, you really do buy shoes every day!"

"I do not, Danny. And it is a dream. I'm always in different places... stores. And I'm trying on shoes, but it always ends up being the same pair. Every time."

I could see Danny thought I was just being a ditz, as usual. That offended me more than normal.

"Whatever, it's not important, Danny. I just wondered..." I started packing up to go home. Danny stood up too.

"Hey, Min, obviously it's important to you if you keep dreaming about it. Maybe you just gotta, I dunno, find those shoes. You get the shoes you really want, you can quit dreaming about them."

What? I don't want those shoes.

"That's ridiculous, Danny! I don't want those shoes! They don't even fit. They are totally the wrong shoes!" Yeah, that was panic in my voice for no apparent reason. Danny looked at me like I was nuts.

"OK, you're dreaming about shoes you don't want, that makes no sense. You want the shoes!"

"No, I do not! Stop telling me that!"

Danny just shook his head at me. "Mindy, I can't believe you have me arguing about this!" He threw his arms up in the air and walked out, but he waited for me to join him.

We walked out of the office silently and I felt this strange, unfinished feeling. Maybe it was just a weird vibe Danny was putting out, because he kept kind of glancing at me and I'd catch it out of the corner of my eyed then he would look away. The high school comparison seemed apropos again.

Once we got to the street, we would normally part ways, and I would go home, and Danny would go to whatever weird thing he did off work hours. The gym? A cigar club? Who knows. But we hit the street and paused, and I turned to say goodnight. Danny just stood there, hands in his jacket pockets, and he was kind of bouncing up and on the balls of his feet. If I didn't know Danny well enough to say he is a cocky, self assured sonofabitch, I would have thought he was nervous.

"Well, have a good weekend, Danny."

Unreadable expression.

"Yeah... yeah. You too..." It was the same thing he had been doing in my doorway... lingering. Like he had something to say, but couldn't spit it out. Well, it's not my job to interpret Danny Castellano and his inscrutability, so I just gave him a little smile as I turned away.

"Hey."

I don't know why that one little word started my engine going, but it did. I felt warm, really warm, like I was standing in front of an inferno. I turned back and met his eyes. Vroooom...

"You wanna go... get a drink or something?" Danny had this look of triumph, like he had made it to the top of Mount Everest. I was intrigued. And thirsty. And this weird little feeling of something else, some deep desire, spider webbed through me and I smiled and said yes.

I'm really rethinking my opinion of those shoes.

So we walked a few blocks to a little pub sort of a bar, the kind without any pop music or blinking lights, totally a Danny kind of a joint. Surprisingly, I didn't feel that out of place. We approached the bar, which was dimly lit enough to be just this side of creepy, but I could make out Danny's smile, no problem. He helped me take off my coat, then stood beside me as I hopped onto a stool. Leaning in to the bar to give our drink order to the bartender, he placed his hand on the small of my back, his chest pressed against my shoulder. I missed it when it was gone, but he returned and sat next to me.

The bartender, a grizzled old fella who had probably seen better days, came back with Danny's bottled beer and my fruity concoction. He smiled at me, then he glanced at Danny and raised an eyebrow, smile turning to a full on grin. Danny closed his eyes and just barely nodded.

"What the hell was that, Danny?" I hissed at him. He looked at me innocently.

"What?"

"That little unspoken communication. Were you mocking my beverage choice?"

Danny grinned, then took a swig of his beer. "Yup!" He replied. I glanced back at the bartender who was now talking to a waitress and another patron, all three looking my way and smiling. The bartender said something that caused the other two to laugh and they broke up the huddle. I looked back at Danny catching the tail end of a hand gesture he was making at his throat, and he awkwardly scratched his neck.

"Hey."

"Drink your fruitini, Mindy. The ice is melting."

"It's like four degrees in here, Danny. Nothing is melting. Do you know those guys?"

He looked a little embarrassed. "No, I mean, yeah, I come in here sometimes..."

The waitress, a Beverly lookalike, came up and wound her arm around Danny's shoulders. "Hey, Dan, good to see you. Sure you two don't want a booth? There's a quiet one in the back."

Danny waved her off politely and turned back to me. I was amused.

"Dan?" I teased him. "Do you have something going on with that waitress, Dan?"

Danny was sitting facing me. I laughed and swiveled my barstool his direction. I stopped when my knee hit his, but I didn't move it.

I sipped my drink. He swigged his beer. We held a gaze just long enough to make me feel like I was going to start sweating, then I looked away. He didn't. I started to swivel back, but his other knee trapped mine, and when I met his eyes again, I saw.

I wanted those shoes.

But I didn't just want to wear the damned shoes for a night. I wanted those shoes in my closet, those comfortable, well worn shoes that at first I didn't even like, but suddenly felt like they were custom made just for me.

Enough with the damned shoe analogy. I wanted Danny. And for once his expression was pretty straightforward. No doubt about it, he wanted me.

So there we sat, in a darkened, seedy little bar, not talking. At least not with words. I sipped my drink, and played with my hair, and Danny drank his beer, and fiddled with his shirt sleeves. We looked and looked away, both wanting more but not knowing how to proceed. Granted, he asked me to get a drink, so I give him credit for the move, but now we were stalled.

My drink was just ice and his beer was gone, and I didn't want another because I was already feeling buzzed and maybe a little vulnerable. So I excused myself to the ladies room. I looked in the mirror, touching up my concealer because the dark circles under my eyes were showing, and I dabbed a bit of lip gloss on, but not too much. I looked tired, and suddenly I was tired, and maybe this was a terrible idea and I just needed to go home.

I walked back out, resolved to put the brakes on this, this, whatever, before I lost control, and I saw Danny talking to a tall brunette. She was devastatingly beautiful and animatedly talking, reaching to touch him and laughing and suddenly I was furious... and jealous. Mind bendingly jealous.

I reached the pair and she glanced at me, instantly disregarding me as any kind of a threat, and she focused back on Danny. He seemed undisturbed.

"Oh, hey, Mindy. Carol, this is Mindy, Dr. Lahiri, the one I was talking about. Min, Carol is interested in the practice."

She went through the motions of making nice and shook my hand, but her eyes said she had in interest in the practice, only the doctor. I hope my eyes accurately conveyed the "back the fuck off" message I was sending. I put my hand on Danny's back and told him I had to go, could he get my coat?

"Nice to meet you, Carol. Did Danny give you a business card?" I asked her as we both watched Danny head for the coats.

"Yes, thank you." She said coolly. I turned back and smiled at her. "I'm sure you'll find our office welcoming and professional. There are several other doctors who are taking new patients. Have a great night."

I joined Danny and we headed out into the cool night. I needed to get a cab, but somehow we just started walking. I couldn't let the whole gorgeous woman thing go, though.

"She was really pretty, Danny. Maybe you should have asked her out." Yeah, I fish.

He gave me an odd look. "Well, that would have been unprofessional."

"She didn't want you as her doctor, Danny. She wanted to play doctor."

He scoffed.

"Seriously, Danny? In five minutes you forget what it looks like when a woman is hot for you?"

Danny stopped walking and gave me an appraising look. "There was a woman hot for me five minutes ago?" He grinned.

Fuck.

That grin weakens my brain. "Shut up. You know what I mean." I kept walking.

"Yeah." He said in a voice barely above a whisper as he caught back up to me.

"So, you should have gone for it." I seem to be a masochist these days, because the thought of her with Danny was making me ill.

"Well, as well as being unprofessional, it would have been very rude. A gentleman doesn't ask out one woman when he is out with another." His words seemed very measured and he was watching for my reaction. I don't think he could see the warm tingles I was feeling, though.

"Besides, she wasn't my type."

That made me stop walking. What kind of bullshit was this now?

"Really, Danny? Tall skinny supermodels aren't your type?" Glutton for punishment, that's me.

"Naw, she was pretty, she just seemed... cold. Calculating, even."

"So you did know she was hot for you!"

Danny just shrugged. "Hey, you want me to get you a cab, or..."

I just looked at him. Really? Were going to have all that buildup in the bar and then miss Ice Queen arrives and he puts the kibosh on it? Never mind that I was already planning on stopping the train wreck before it happened. Maybe Danny was just having the same trepidation that I was, but I didn't want to let him off so easy. Hell, with all it took for him to ask me to have a drink, we may never get the chance again, and I cannot keep having those dreams.

"So what is your type, Danny?" This random street corner seemed like the right place to throw it down. I waited.

Danny sighed, stuffing his hands into his jacket and rolling his head around. The warm buzz from the alcohol was rapidly disintegrating and now, I just wanted, I don't know. Shit or get off the pot, Danny.

"My type... My type." He finally looked at me and we just held that gaze. "Smart. Funny. So beautiful it makes me catch my breath when I look at her."

Now I wasn't breathing.

"That's... a little generic, Danny." He laughed, looking away again.

"Fine, you want specifics." He somehow had moved closer without my even noticing. "She's educated, but doesn't let that get in her way of having fun. She makes me crazy when I'm around her and makes me miss her when I'm not. She finds a way to get through all the defenses I've put up and makes me feel things I never thought I'd feel again."

I think at this point there were tears in both our eyes. I was feeling way too much emotion and my own defenses started to act up. I swallowed hard.

"Danny, you're describing a person, not a type."

He was even closer now. His hand had found my hand and he squeezed it.

"She can be really annoying sometimes and I don't even mind it anymore. She's got a smile that warms my soul and an ass for days."

"Danny, this person sounds terrible."

"And she shuts up long enough to let me kiss her." He was so close I felt his breath and my eyes were going a little crossed looking at his, so I had to look back and forth. His other hand was on my hip now, and there was no space between us, and no air, and I just shut my eyes.

"Yeah, so that's my type, Mindy. How about you?" Suddenly he was gone, no longer touching me or holding me, and I was instantly freezing. My eyes flew open and he was standing a foot or two away, smiling at me, and Carol had her arm locked in his, with her head resting on his shoulder. I screamed.

"Mindy! What the hell?" Danny appeared in my doorway, and I lifted my head off the desk where a puddle of drool remained.

"Bad... dream..." was all I could say, wiping my chin and looking confusedly at the office which replaced my chilly street corner. Oh, the hell with you, Wizard of Oz, this is complete bullshit.

"Did the beast catch ya?" Danny snickered.

"Almost..." I said dejectedly. I wiped my desk and tidied the files which were strewn about. A peek at the clock told me it was almost 7 pm.

"Better luck next time."

I sighed. Stupid dreams... It's about time I started facing some harsh realities - going home to Bravo tv and cold pizza.

I joined Danny in the lobby and we went down to the street, where it was still pretty cold. I turned to say goodnight and Danny took my elbow.

"Hey."

Vroom...

"You wanna get a drink?" He asked me, with a measure of hopeful triumph.

It was all I could do to keep from jumping him right there in the street. I bit my bottom lip and looked up under my lashes, classic Mindy move, and he was smiling expectantly.

"Yeah, I do, Danny." I said, linking my arm in his. "Let's find a nice cozy place. Know any around here?"

"Yeah, in fact, I do." We walked off arm in arm and I was already feeling warm again.

We passed a few stores and one caught my eye, so I stopped to look in the window. "Mindy, Mindy, Mindy. Don't you have enough shoes already?" Danny chided.

"For now, Danny. But I have my eye on one more pair..." I turned to him and beamed my best smile. "But we'll get to that later. Let's get that drink."

We walked a few more strides before Danny responded quizzically.

"We?"

Oh, silly man. I can't keep having these dreams, you see...


End file.
